I need help changing rotor and brake pads both front and rear. I was going to have it done at the Honda service but they are charging $200 for each brake change. That's $400 for just brake pads change and resurfacing rotors.

So I decide to do them my self. I bought brembo drilled and slotted rotor and brake pads for both front and rear for about $300.

The problem is I never work on cars before.. I did change oil on my car many times though.

Any help will be appreciated.

 

you may want to find out if your rotors are pressed on first, when I went to change mine in my '96 Accord they were, and if they are pressed on, you ain't gonna get em off... And if you have never bled brakes before, cause you are going to have to do that too, you may want to take it to a mechanic to make sure it was done right, when I was trying mine, my dad forgot to tell me he let the pressure out and I couldn't stop, imagine doing 45 coming up to a red light and not being able to stop...

 

Now that I read your story I am not sure if I want to do them myself... I wonder how you managed to stop your car!!!

 

Downshifted from 4th to 2nd since its a stick, and a nice tug of the ebrake.

I went to one mechanic, they wanted to charge me $350 to have the work done, more I guess since I bought my own rotors and pads, most likely they weren't going to make as much money so they decided to gouge me on labor. Went to another mechanic, he charged me $125 then an extra 10 bucks to bleed my brakes since I only had my fronts done. I say screw the dealer and go to a mechanic.

 

A mechanic you trust...that is.

If you were just changing the pads, it would be easy enough to do it yourself. But since you are doing the rotors and aren't too sure about it, just pay someone to do it.

 

owen996.. Forgive my ignorance, but why do you have to bleed brakes when you change brake pads?? Is that to release brake pressure to push piston back?

By the way, from what I read on internet, bleeding brakes is not mentioned for 2002 accord when changing brake pads. Or bleeding is required for any brake pad change?

I am thinking about going to a mechanic myself but I want to give it a try.
From what I read so far changing rotor does not seem to require much more work than changing brake pads.. I think you just gotta remove caliper from the wheel.

I wonder if the order of replacing rotor and pad makes any difference though..

My parts are arriving on next Monday. I will post pics if I survive the test drive. :chuckles:

Appreciate any comments.

 

Well, I actually just talked to my friend, I guess you don't HAVE to bleed the brakes, but if you take off the caliper you do. I guess when my dad ****ed with my brakes, he took off my caliper. I had a hard time trying to push my caliper back, plus it was 8 years of crap built up on there. But like you said, if you remove the caliper from the brake line, you definitely gotta bleed them. I dunno, I would take it somewhere but thats just my opinion.

 

well, if u gonna replace rotors, u mite as well replace the pad, unless u got a good amount of oem pads on....if not, i also recommend using axis brake pads

u must take the caliper out of the rotor to change brake pad or rotors

as for bleeding, its not even necessary, but pushing the caliper bac can be tricky, gotta be quick ...but they do sell this lil small kit, for like $5-10, which help u push the caliper back in easily and cut alot of time (expecially if u're new at this stuff)

and this isn't a hard job to do, i suggest doing it yourself and if worst case it don't work, just bring it to a mechanic...

chaning oil or brake pad / rotors is like simliar, just a lil more time required.

DO IT YOURSELF and save those unecessary money...

 

Ok I bought the same rotors and did it myself.

Jack up the car, I used 4 jack stands to suspend the car in the air.

The only thing that you will definitely need, I mean DEFINITELY is an impact screw driver.

You will not get that screw off the rotors unless u use that screw driver.
If you use a regular philips you risk breaking the head of the screw and screwing up the whole thing.

I used a vice to collapse the calipers and left the bleeder valve open enough to release pressure..

Took my about 2 hours to do since I took my time and did it very slow.

 

flyromeo3

I guess you have good deal of experience working on a car. Do you know any source on internet that have image or instructions on changing brake pads and rotors? I was looking for a repair manual for the accord 2002 but I could not find any.

It's been very frustrating trying to find any good source of info for repair on the internet for accord 2002. if you can post some if would appreciate very much.